Banned Wildlife

Special
Feature

Are
ivory trade days numbered?

By Ridhi
Chhabra

Ivory has held a
unique fascination for mankind since time
immemorial - it mainly comprises the tusks of an
elephant that are considered highly valuable for
many reasons. Ivory is seen as a status symbol
because of the high price and artwork done on the
tusks.

Though ivory is also
obtained from the tusks of rhinoceros, walrus (a
large gregarious marine mammal related to the
eared seals, having two large downward-pointing
tusks) and narwhals (a medium-sized toothed
whale); elephant ivory is highly priced due to its
smooth texture, less outer covering of enamel and
the ease by which it is carved. It is sold at an
exorbitant price by the poachers who kill animals
for ivory.

Elephants are culturally
significant in African and Asian countries and
Indian history tells us that ivory was widely used
in ancient India as many texts are full of
descriptions of costly furniture made of ivory for
the royalty and ivory thrones, human figures,
palanquins of carved ivory for the
royal women, earrings and silver
orgold mounted bangles. In
ancient China, jewellery, vessels, tools and other
products were made out of ivory and the same have
been recovered by archeologists. The huge demand
in these countries and the ban on new production
of ivory has made the commodity rare and more
expensive.

Ivory has been traded
for hundreds of centuries leading to the
endangerment of the species from which it is
obtained. Exploitation of elephants by organized
gangs of poachers, shooting them with automatic
weapons and chopping off their tusks with axes and
chainsaws and then selling them have called for
the imposition of many restrictions and bans.
Between 2008 and 2013, the estimated death toll
ranged between 30,000 and 50,000 elephants per
year.

Surprisingly, the
country Ivory Coast (a country in west Africa,
located next to Liberia and Ghana) does not live
up to its name. In the early 19th century, it was
called Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast in English) by
the French colonials, the area was one of the
chief export areas for the ivory trade to Europe
and became known as the Ivory Coast. At present,
only two or three hundred elephants live in
isolated herds in the country and elephant hunting
does not have a noticeable impact on GDP. Tourists
buy ivory items carved by Ivoirian artisans, who
have a reputation for being among the best at
their trade. No one knows exactly where the
artisans are getting their ivory.

The Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
secured an agreement in 1989 among its member
states to ban the international trade in ivory.
Before the ban, the United States imported a great
deal of worked ivory in the world, after Japan and
the European market. The United States accounted
for 12 percent of all international ivory trade.
Following the implementation of the ban, the ivory
market collapsed significantly. Ivory and tiger
products still continue to pour into China and
Taiwan despite of The U.S threatening and imposing
sanctions on these countries. Almost 70 per cent
of illegal ivory makes its way to China where a
pound of it can fetch as much as $1,000. The
shocking statistics also reveal that the tusks of
a single adult elephant can be worth more than 10
times the average annual income in many African
countries.

Britain's Prince William
urged an end to the ivory trade, visiting a
Chinese elephant sanctuary in the southwestern
province of Yunnan during a three-day trip that
focused partly on wildlife conservation. China
announced last month (February 2015) a one-year
ban on the import of African ivory carvings and
ivory imports amid criticism that its
citizens’ huge appetite for ivory has
fuelled a surge in poaching in Africa.

Recently (March 3, 2015), Kenyan
President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to a 10 feet
high pile of 15 tons of elephant tusks doused with
petrol on World Wildlife Day during an
anti-poaching ceremony at Nairobi National Park in
Nairobi, Kenya. The ivory, with a black market
value of $30 million, is the largest consignment
to be destroyed in Kenya. Many of these tusks
belonged to the elephants slaughtered by poachers
and smugglers.

The poaching of
elephants for ivory and its trade is decreasing
due to the efforts made by wildlife activists and
committees working towards the preservation of the
endangered species. More stringent laws and
prohibitions would help the conservation and
protection of the animals and equally important is
the role of each one of us who should promptly
report any violation or notice trade in these
banned products.